2020 duck season, no 2020 quail season

The Minister for Environment and Water, David Speirs, has declared a duck season in 2020 and the first non-quail season in several years.

CHASA delegates met with departmental staff late last year to consider the October waterfowl counts, the Eastern Australia Arial Waterbird Counts and Breeding Index and the CHASA bag survey data report for the 2019 season, plus Greenness Index and the 2019 rainfall data. CHASA delegates were pleased that a duck season was announced with a reduced bag of four ducks per day for 2020, given the dry conditions and low breeding index in south-eastern Australia.

CHASA has been offered a meeting with the Executive Director of National Parks Mike Williams to discuss the season details that were not discussed at the meeting to understand why the daily opening and closing times have been changed, why only one Mountain Duck is allowed in the bag, why Hardhead were omitted from the bag, and why there is no quail season when a reduced bag size of 10 birds was recommended by CHASA and the risk of overhunting is so low.

More details about the 2020 duck season will be available soon.

Good hunting everyone and please remind your fellow hunters to return their bag survey forms at the end of the season – a vital ingredient in considering future seasons.